Before I get to the main bulk of my blog for today, I'd like to take some time out for an announcement. I said for weeks (and months) that a new edit for Project Zero: BulletProof was coming. Anyone who started reading it before May/June and then came back to it recently may have discovered that there's differences. Some huge, some minor. I've talked about it before, but the book has a new opening.
Because of the new edition, I'm participating in the July sale at Smashwords. Use coupon code: SSW50 at checkout before July 31st to receive half off Project Zero: BulletProof.
Yeah, I know, it's already into the month of July, and I've already written a couple of entries in July, but I figured I should write something about the summer. And...well, really don't have much to say about the summer yet, so I'm going to talk about some of the things I've seen, listened to, played, and read.
Some of the following I've already touched on before now, so I'll keep those brief...er.
Thor: Liked it. Sad they're getting the guy who wrote Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer to write number two. A+
X-Men: First Class: Liked it. Not sure if they're doing another one. Confused on whether this was a sequel or reboot since it was kinda both. A
Green Lantern: It was ok. Could've been better, but it could've been worse. Ryan Reynolds was Ryan Reynolds, but with a Green Lantern ring. C+/B-
Horrible Bosses: Haven't said anything about this one at all. I was expecting a raunchy comedy about wanting to and plotting to kill horrible bosses. That is what I got. That might not sound like praise, but it was damn funny. I like Jason Bateman. He has that...comedic timing that other actors don't always have. It got kind of silly towards the end and I, for the life of me, figure out why Jason Bateman and Jason Sudeikis are friends with Charlie Day. B+
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Not the movie, the book series. It's been pretty good. I read through Lightning Thief and Sea of Monsters pretty quickly. I was a little sad when I discovered it's in the Juniors section at Barnes and Noble. I mean, I'm reading it because so many students I've had have read it, and I try to read at least some of what they're reading (which is a miracle after I was goaded into reading Twilight. I try to understand the appeal based on the fact that the demographic is 10-16 year old girls, but it was 500 pages of the same thing), but still, I had to have an employee show me to the Juniors section.
Lightning Thief gets an A, Sea of Monsters gets a B because it was slow to get moving and not much happened except for at the end.
The Chronicles of Vladmir Tod: I started reading this way back in September when I was proctoring the MAP test and got through the first three. I picked up the fourth a week ago. I remember why it took me so long to get to Eleventh Grade Burns. This was, however, in the Teen Fiction section and B&N. Not sure what the difference is since both this and Percy Jackson are fantasy novels with fair amounts of violence, teen characters, and hints of innuendo. C
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception Multiplayer Beta: I subscribed to PlayStation Plus (I was going to before the outage, and they were offering the extra months as part of the anniversary. It had nothing to do with the free trial as part of the "Welcome Back" package. I swear.) and thus got into the Beta a week earlier than most. If you played the second game, you'll feel at home once you get used to the control changes (they aren't major, but there are a few). My biggest problem is melee and I'll go into what I like and dislike about the game at a later date (probably). B (with potential to be higher at release)
Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3: Let's be honest, if you've played one DW game, you know what you're getting. That said, if you're a fan of the first two and of the Gundam Universe (and if you're not, then you probably have no interest in the game, anyway). The new cel-shaded graphics make the suits pop out more than they did in the past games. The new art style also adds cool splash effects to the beam weapons.
The mission structure is similar to the first in that the main story is just a poor excuse to jam popular characters from the various TV shows (and the series continues to stick only to the shows, no OVA characters here). However, the various modes from DWG2 make a return, but they aren't blocked off from the story mode this time around, so now everything counts for something (whether it be G point currency, MS plans (replacing the parts system from 2), or pilot level). Yeah, a lot of this affected the story mode the last time around, but it's even more integrated in 3.
Score for Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3? Fan of the series/Gundam: A. Other Players: not even on your radar.
Also, the manager at the GameStop I bought it at (don't like GameStop, but I had gift cards and it's the only store selling the game) insulted me because I said I was going to preorder Arkham City at BestBuy to get the Robin character. I don't care if you like Robin or not, but yeah, insulting customers is not good customer service.
I started watching Camelot since it's on the streaming service on NetFlix (grr to NetFlix raising its prices, even if it had to to remain a viable business). The series is enjoyable, even knowing it won't be back for a second season. I really like seeing the guy from Shakespeare in Love as Merlin (the dude looks good bald and he's a good actor). My biggest problem is Arthur. I had a hard time believing this whiny little weirdo is going to become the king of legends.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
We are the Corps!
I saw Green Lantern (like anyone expected me not to) and I liked it. I thought it was fun, even if the movie had some problems. My problem was more with the family (or at least one adult supervisor and a mess of kids) that sat down in the row behind us right before the movie started. The movie is not (as IGN claims here) a kid's movie. Sure, there are tons of brightly colored alien creatures (for about 10 minutes), but even those scenes aren't really for kids. And judging by the reaction of the squirly bunch behind me, they seemed to agree with me.
Half the kids (there were four) were bored and complained about being bored to anyone who didn't want to listen, and the other half were shrieking at any loud noise or bright light. And there was language I wouldn't want a little kid to pick up. Hal calls several people a$$holes (which totally goes against his character, but we're not focusing on the quality of the film itself here) and Kilowog refers to Hal as a female dog. Now, the film is rated PG-13, and I'd still wince if there were kids that young in the audience. But these were children who looked to be between the ages of 6-10. And not to mention the violence. Sure, there are colorful aliens in the film, but a good number of them die in horrific ways (well, ok, one gets part of his chest blown off and the rest have their essence ripped out in the forms of really painful looking, screaming skeleton).
This isn't the next Star Wars. It's an adventure that takes place mainly in one locale, not the across galaxies space-farrin' adventures of the Star Wars films (or planet/sea of the Indiana Jones or Pirates movies).
This isn't the next Star Wars. It wants to be. It wants you to believe it is. But it isn't (though with the over use of CG, I'd be hard to press to blame you if you mistook it for one of the prequels). It isn't for kids.
It does, however, have Bzzd. And that makes me smile.
Half the kids (there were four) were bored and complained about being bored to anyone who didn't want to listen, and the other half were shrieking at any loud noise or bright light. And there was language I wouldn't want a little kid to pick up. Hal calls several people a$$holes (which totally goes against his character, but we're not focusing on the quality of the film itself here) and Kilowog refers to Hal as a female dog. Now, the film is rated PG-13, and I'd still wince if there were kids that young in the audience. But these were children who looked to be between the ages of 6-10. And not to mention the violence. Sure, there are colorful aliens in the film, but a good number of them die in horrific ways (well, ok, one gets part of his chest blown off and the rest have their essence ripped out in the forms of really painful looking, screaming skeleton).
This isn't the next Star Wars. It's an adventure that takes place mainly in one locale, not the across galaxies space-farrin' adventures of the Star Wars films (or planet/sea of the Indiana Jones or Pirates movies).
This isn't the next Star Wars. It wants to be. It wants you to believe it is. But it isn't (though with the over use of CG, I'd be hard to press to blame you if you mistook it for one of the prequels). It isn't for kids.
It does, however, have Bzzd. And that makes me smile.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
A New Class
The end of the school year is upon us, and as such, I haven't had as much time as I've wanted to sit down and write new musings, reviews, etc. Just been too busy is all.
So it's fitting that my first post of the summer is about a summer blockbuster film: X-Men: First Class (I'll try to work on my lead-ins, I swear). If you want to skip all of my little nitpickings on the film (it's a great temptation sometimes, I know), then let me say this: It's the best X-Men film to date (X2 is a very, very close second).
The story-telling and character-building is excellent. Most of the characters are well developed, though the villains still suffer from the same problems Magneto's minions did way back in the first X-Film. That is, to say, they are just random villains pulled from the X-Men universe and stuffed together to serve as henchman to the main baddie. The X-Men have plenty of actual teams of villains (like the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (yes, I know they used that name in the first film, but they were a hodgepodge of characters operating under that name) and the actual Hellfire club, although they got two members. So there is that) I don't think they ever say the name of the guy who makes tornados during the movie. I had to wait for the credits to figure that out.
The film has its problems, too (aside from the underdeveloped badguys). The special effects suffer in the same way Wolverine's did. Some just seem...unfinished. Though, nothing in this movie is as bad as in XO:W. And that's not to say all the effects were laughably bad. Most were very effective, though I found myself drawn to the character moments more than the action pieces.
I think this might be the first movie where I wanted the fight scenes to end so they could go back to talking. And that is a huge credit to the writing. The story has been told before. We get a glossed-over version in the X-Men films of the fallout between Xavier and Magneto, but here we see the two develop their powers independently before they meet and that's when things got really interesting. The moment, teased in the trailer, of Xavier pulling a gun on Magneto, played out in an entirely different manner than I thought it would. Which is good, since I though Charles would've been smarter than to try to shoot Magneto with metal bullets.
Mystique was another character I really liked in First Class. She only ever wanted to be accepted as who she was and she looked to her "brother" for that assurance, but he was too blind/stupid/self-absorbed to see it. And then with Hank, for someone that smart, he really was dumb (in a natural way. I mean, pretty blond girl makes men do stupid things) with Mystique. It was clear she was hurting, but he couldn't see it. He just wanted to cure his thumb-toe (and turn blue in the process, which, in a roundabout way, hurt Mystique. Again). All Mystique wanted was some lovin' as her blue self, and only Magneto (and if the films follow the comics at all, Azazel) was willing to give it to her. That also solidified his character as a man who believes that he (or anyone) shouldn't have to hide what he (or they) is (are).
The other issue I took with the movie was it didn't know what it was or wanted to be. By that, I mean, was it a prequel or a reboot. The opening was an almost shot for shot remake of the opening to X-Men with Erik being separated from his parents and then using his powers to pull on the gate (though it expands on this), but there was a lot in this film that openly contradicts the others. Kelly summed it up with one name: Jean Grey.
***SPOILERS***
In Last Stand, Erik and Charles recruit a young Jean. Charles is still walking here, so the spinal injury he receives at the end of First Class doesn't really jive with that. Unless he gets healed and Erik becomes an instructor at the institute in the next film. The second is Emma Frost's age. Though different people say different things about Silverfox's sister being Emma in Wolverine, it seemed pretty clear to the makers of the film that it was (and Vaughn reportedly considered the actress to reprise the role in FC), which means Frost would've had to have stopped aging for about five years and then gotten fifteen years younger. The relationship between Xavier and Mystique was never hinted at in the first trilogy and as someone who were raised as siblings, that seems like something that should've come up.
I recommend this film for anyone who has ever liked the X-Men ever. Continuity from the other films be damned, First Class is good enough that I can put that aside and enjoy the ride. With its lower-than-expected box office returns, here's hoping this class will return for another go-round.
Note: I tend to talk about the social aspect of the viewing more, but I'm tired from a long day of driving (went to a video games in education symposium) and I need to get back in the habit of writing more.
So it's fitting that my first post of the summer is about a summer blockbuster film: X-Men: First Class (I'll try to work on my lead-ins, I swear). If you want to skip all of my little nitpickings on the film (it's a great temptation sometimes, I know), then let me say this: It's the best X-Men film to date (X2 is a very, very close second).
The story-telling and character-building is excellent. Most of the characters are well developed, though the villains still suffer from the same problems Magneto's minions did way back in the first X-Film. That is, to say, they are just random villains pulled from the X-Men universe and stuffed together to serve as henchman to the main baddie. The X-Men have plenty of actual teams of villains (like the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (yes, I know they used that name in the first film, but they were a hodgepodge of characters operating under that name) and the actual Hellfire club, although they got two members. So there is that) I don't think they ever say the name of the guy who makes tornados during the movie. I had to wait for the credits to figure that out.
The film has its problems, too (aside from the underdeveloped badguys). The special effects suffer in the same way Wolverine's did. Some just seem...unfinished. Though, nothing in this movie is as bad as in XO:W. And that's not to say all the effects were laughably bad. Most were very effective, though I found myself drawn to the character moments more than the action pieces.
I think this might be the first movie where I wanted the fight scenes to end so they could go back to talking. And that is a huge credit to the writing. The story has been told before. We get a glossed-over version in the X-Men films of the fallout between Xavier and Magneto, but here we see the two develop their powers independently before they meet and that's when things got really interesting. The moment, teased in the trailer, of Xavier pulling a gun on Magneto, played out in an entirely different manner than I thought it would. Which is good, since I though Charles would've been smarter than to try to shoot Magneto with metal bullets.
Mystique was another character I really liked in First Class. She only ever wanted to be accepted as who she was and she looked to her "brother" for that assurance, but he was too blind/stupid/self-absorbed to see it. And then with Hank, for someone that smart, he really was dumb (in a natural way. I mean, pretty blond girl makes men do stupid things) with Mystique. It was clear she was hurting, but he couldn't see it. He just wanted to cure his thumb-toe (and turn blue in the process, which, in a roundabout way, hurt Mystique. Again). All Mystique wanted was some lovin' as her blue self, and only Magneto (and if the films follow the comics at all, Azazel) was willing to give it to her. That also solidified his character as a man who believes that he (or anyone) shouldn't have to hide what he (or they) is (are).
The other issue I took with the movie was it didn't know what it was or wanted to be. By that, I mean, was it a prequel or a reboot. The opening was an almost shot for shot remake of the opening to X-Men with Erik being separated from his parents and then using his powers to pull on the gate (though it expands on this), but there was a lot in this film that openly contradicts the others. Kelly summed it up with one name: Jean Grey.
***SPOILERS***
In Last Stand, Erik and Charles recruit a young Jean. Charles is still walking here, so the spinal injury he receives at the end of First Class doesn't really jive with that. Unless he gets healed and Erik becomes an instructor at the institute in the next film. The second is Emma Frost's age. Though different people say different things about Silverfox's sister being Emma in Wolverine, it seemed pretty clear to the makers of the film that it was (and Vaughn reportedly considered the actress to reprise the role in FC), which means Frost would've had to have stopped aging for about five years and then gotten fifteen years younger. The relationship between Xavier and Mystique was never hinted at in the first trilogy and as someone who were raised as siblings, that seems like something that should've come up.
I recommend this film for anyone who has ever liked the X-Men ever. Continuity from the other films be damned, First Class is good enough that I can put that aside and enjoy the ride. With its lower-than-expected box office returns, here's hoping this class will return for another go-round.
Note: I tend to talk about the social aspect of the viewing more, but I'm tired from a long day of driving (went to a video games in education symposium) and I need to get back in the habit of writing more.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
This Was a Triumph
A few days after the whole debacle with the PlayStation Network, I purchased a video game. Not just any game, but one of the most hotly anticipated games of the year. No, not Mortal Kombat (though the demo was pretty entertaining even if I could never get the X-ray moves to work right), but Portal 2.
The original Portal was more or less a short, little distraction (and I use that term loosely, as none of Valve's games are throwaways) introduced in The Orange Box as an extra game to entice buyers. Looking at the history of the game (they hired designers specifically for Portal), it's difficult to understand that decision. But hey, can't complain about the results. The first Portal was given all kinds of love in the gaming community, so a sequel had to be close behind.
And in terms of Valve development time, it was. I mean, three and a half years to get a sequel out is akin to Infinity Ward/Treyarch getting a new Call of Duty game out every twelve months. That almost seems like they rushed it out (not really true, since I think the gap between the two Left 4 Dead games was much shorter than this).
So how is Portal 2? Delightful. I didn't even play much of the single player (Kelly did that), but even as a spectator I was constantly entertained. The dialogue among Chell and GLaDOS and Wheatley was amazing (yes, Chell never speaks, but that doesn't stop her from being part of the conversation). There are so many little details and connections (I found blue paint in one of the test chambers during co-op and didn't stop laughing for twenty minutes) that upon completion, I wanted to go through it again.
I don't think I can be more indepth than any of the game review sites, but I will say this: buy it. And buy the PS3 version, you get the PC version with it. Assuming the PSN is still around, of course.
The original Portal was more or less a short, little distraction (and I use that term loosely, as none of Valve's games are throwaways) introduced in The Orange Box as an extra game to entice buyers. Looking at the history of the game (they hired designers specifically for Portal), it's difficult to understand that decision. But hey, can't complain about the results. The first Portal was given all kinds of love in the gaming community, so a sequel had to be close behind.
And in terms of Valve development time, it was. I mean, three and a half years to get a sequel out is akin to Infinity Ward/Treyarch getting a new Call of Duty game out every twelve months. That almost seems like they rushed it out (not really true, since I think the gap between the two Left 4 Dead games was much shorter than this).
So how is Portal 2? Delightful. I didn't even play much of the single player (Kelly did that), but even as a spectator I was constantly entertained. The dialogue among Chell and GLaDOS and Wheatley was amazing (yes, Chell never speaks, but that doesn't stop her from being part of the conversation). There are so many little details and connections (I found blue paint in one of the test chambers during co-op and didn't stop laughing for twenty minutes) that upon completion, I wanted to go through it again.
I don't think I can be more indepth than any of the game review sites, but I will say this: buy it. And buy the PS3 version, you get the PC version with it. Assuming the PSN is still around, of course.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Up, Up, and Away!
Smallville premiered when I was a Sophomore in high school. I remember being excited to see a teen Clark Kent in a weekly series (outside of the old Superboy show, which I'm not old enough to remember, anyway). The first episode came and went and I was hooked. Each week, Clark did battle with a new villain (in the "creature/villain of the week" format) while balancing his personal life (the on-again off-again relationships with both Lana and Lex. Lex was a bromance, not a romance) with his newfound abilities.
I remember thinking how cool some of the special effects were, even if they were cheesy. In a time when most shows and movies were following the Matrix's bullettime example of making everything really slow to show how fast the character was moving (I still don't get it. I mean, he's going really, REALLY slow. Still better than the really fast Agent Smith, I suppose), Smallville took it in a different direction. Clark moved at regular speed (with blurs abound) and the environment around him would either freeze or be in slow motion. Now that's fast. The other effect I always cheered on was when someone would hit Clark with something, anything, and it would shatter on the Man of Steel. Didn't matter what it was, golf club, baseball bat, arrow, bullet, pretty sure there was a car engine in there somewhere, it always shattered the same, awesome way.
The show did suffer from a lack of direction at times and the fact that the CW/WB gave that show a budget of $1.25 didn't hlep. The show picked up after Millar and Gough left after the 7th season and the new showrunners truly embraced the source material. While I credit Millar and Gough for selling the WB on Smallville, the show had started getting long in the tooth (how many seasons of Lana and Clark pining for each other did we need. And the whole fake marriage thing with Lex? That was just creepy. Plus, Gough and Millar were partly responsible for Spider-Man 2, which had some incredibly awkward Clark/Lana-esque moments in it) and I feel the fresh blood really breathed new life into a tired series.
Smallville started out slow and small when it came to branching out into the greater DCU (of characters, it does not, despite what some people think, have any bearing on actual DC comic continuity. Some of the first characters to be featured on Smallville were a certain trickster from the 5th Dimension (though in the show he was a foreign exchange student) and Bart Allen (to this day I cannot figure out why they went with Bart instead of Barry or Wally). Mxyzptlk is a prime example of how the show attempted to stay grounded with its reinvisioning of Superman's early years. Instead of being an impish old demigod from a dimension far different than our own, he was a shifty exchange student with a penchant for fixing high school football games.
Cameos, guest spots, and recurring heroes was also something that improved when the new showrunners took over in season eight. Sure, Gough and Millar managed to work in a couple (like Green Arrow and Black Canary (she showed up in season seven)), but it was an all out nerdfest from eight onward. Everything shifted closer to how it is in the comics while clearly still based in the Smallville universe. The last couple of seasons brought fans Zatanna and the Justice Society. Even Clark matured into the man who would be Super...man.
Everything pointed to a grand finale for such a mainstay on the WB and then CW's schedule (and many viewers' as well), so what happened? Well, Smallville happened. It was always a show of uneven quality. While I enjoyed watching it week to week, there are episodes that stand above the rest, and then there are whole chunks of seasons that I barely watched or remember (I'm looking at you, Veritas journals, et al.)
The finale encompassed everything that the show is and was in two hours. Like just about every season finale before it, Finale (yes, that's the name of the episode) plodded along for the first half until Oliver was revealed as traitor (oops, SPOILERS) and he and Clark had a thirty second fight.
Then it slowed back down again. And Clark had a couple of meaningful conversations with his dad (say what?!), and then his mom, and then Lois (who snuck aboard Air Force One in the second half), all the while Apokalips was bearing down on Earth. We get it. A lot of people helped Clark become the man he is and needs to be. And it's great to have all these heartfelt conversations with those people. But there is a fiery ball of doom heading right for the planet. Didn't it occur to Clark to, I don't know, hurry his ass up? Every time someone talked Clark into taking that next step and he'd rush off, he'd only end up talking to someone else for five minutes.
And who wasn't psyched as heck for Lex's return? Okay, that setup may sound like I'm going to tear into Michael Rosenbaum, but I'm not. Having him around for those couple of minutes really punctuated just how great Lex and Clark's dynamic really was. It was a shame they had to go and erase a decade's worth of character growth like that. Of course, I half-expected him to help dear ol' Tess along a bit quicker after her quip that Clark had saved her first. And without stabbing her.
Meanwhile, daddy Lionel (the evil one from the mirror universe) had taken on the spirit of Darkseid (in exchange for ripping out Lionel's heart to give to Lex) and has gone to confront the Light (Clark) in the Light's (Clark's) barn. What. A. Weak. Fight?
"I hit you!"
"EHH!"
*Five minutes of flashbacks that encompass the WHOLE series!*
"Now I can fly. And I can fly through you!"
"Oh no! Now I'm going to explode into old man dust and birds!"
"Birds?"
"Yes...birds."
"Whatever."
And then he goes to see Jor-El and gets the Superman costume so he can finally deal with the giant flaming ball of death that should have probably already ended all life on Earth. And what the hell is wrong with those people on Air Force One?
"We know firing nukes at this thing won't do a damn thing to it and will kill millions of people. But gosh dangit, let's fire them nukes anyway! Trust us, it's better this way."
That is some pretty poor reasoning.
Finally, Clark gets the suit. And then we never see him with it on. Sure, we get some pretty poor CG of Supes from a distance and then that shot of Clark ripping open his shirt to reveal the 'S' at the end (but his face wasn't even in the shot at that point), but never say, the classic Superman pose, all majestic and heroic.
If Clark could've just pushed Apokalips away, why didn't he do that in the first place. Why did he have to run around town visiting everyone and their mother before finally getting the suit and just nudging the planet away. Oh, it was because he didn't believe in himself? That he hadn't yet truly embraced his destiny? I'm sorry, but that s*** didn't fly in Spider-Man 2 and it certainly doesn't here.
After ten years of the same thing, I shouldn't have been surprised, but I still feel cheated. What? Did Welling just not fit into the Superman Returns costume? Couldn't pay for alterations? Tommy boy didn't want to work out enough to look good in the suit? What was it CW? WHAT? WAS? IT?
In a way, flaws and all, Finale was the perfect finale for the show I spent ten years following. It represents the heights and depths the series was capable of, and, even though I spent most of this post ripping the finale apart, I will miss the show.
Also, CW and Warner Bros., please consider making at least TV movies in the Smallville universe and get Tom Welling to get in shape.
I remember thinking how cool some of the special effects were, even if they were cheesy. In a time when most shows and movies were following the Matrix's bullettime example of making everything really slow to show how fast the character was moving (I still don't get it. I mean, he's going really, REALLY slow. Still better than the really fast Agent Smith, I suppose), Smallville took it in a different direction. Clark moved at regular speed (with blurs abound) and the environment around him would either freeze or be in slow motion. Now that's fast. The other effect I always cheered on was when someone would hit Clark with something, anything, and it would shatter on the Man of Steel. Didn't matter what it was, golf club, baseball bat, arrow, bullet, pretty sure there was a car engine in there somewhere, it always shattered the same, awesome way.
The show did suffer from a lack of direction at times and the fact that the CW/WB gave that show a budget of $1.25 didn't hlep. The show picked up after Millar and Gough left after the 7th season and the new showrunners truly embraced the source material. While I credit Millar and Gough for selling the WB on Smallville, the show had started getting long in the tooth (how many seasons of Lana and Clark pining for each other did we need. And the whole fake marriage thing with Lex? That was just creepy. Plus, Gough and Millar were partly responsible for Spider-Man 2, which had some incredibly awkward Clark/Lana-esque moments in it) and I feel the fresh blood really breathed new life into a tired series.
Smallville started out slow and small when it came to branching out into the greater DCU (of characters, it does not, despite what some people think, have any bearing on actual DC comic continuity. Some of the first characters to be featured on Smallville were a certain trickster from the 5th Dimension (though in the show he was a foreign exchange student) and Bart Allen (to this day I cannot figure out why they went with Bart instead of Barry or Wally). Mxyzptlk is a prime example of how the show attempted to stay grounded with its reinvisioning of Superman's early years. Instead of being an impish old demigod from a dimension far different than our own, he was a shifty exchange student with a penchant for fixing high school football games.
Cameos, guest spots, and recurring heroes was also something that improved when the new showrunners took over in season eight. Sure, Gough and Millar managed to work in a couple (like Green Arrow and Black Canary (she showed up in season seven)), but it was an all out nerdfest from eight onward. Everything shifted closer to how it is in the comics while clearly still based in the Smallville universe. The last couple of seasons brought fans Zatanna and the Justice Society. Even Clark matured into the man who would be Super...man.
Everything pointed to a grand finale for such a mainstay on the WB and then CW's schedule (and many viewers' as well), so what happened? Well, Smallville happened. It was always a show of uneven quality. While I enjoyed watching it week to week, there are episodes that stand above the rest, and then there are whole chunks of seasons that I barely watched or remember (I'm looking at you, Veritas journals, et al.)
The finale encompassed everything that the show is and was in two hours. Like just about every season finale before it, Finale (yes, that's the name of the episode) plodded along for the first half until Oliver was revealed as traitor (oops, SPOILERS) and he and Clark had a thirty second fight.
Then it slowed back down again. And Clark had a couple of meaningful conversations with his dad (say what?!), and then his mom, and then Lois (who snuck aboard Air Force One in the second half), all the while Apokalips was bearing down on Earth. We get it. A lot of people helped Clark become the man he is and needs to be. And it's great to have all these heartfelt conversations with those people. But there is a fiery ball of doom heading right for the planet. Didn't it occur to Clark to, I don't know, hurry his ass up? Every time someone talked Clark into taking that next step and he'd rush off, he'd only end up talking to someone else for five minutes.
And who wasn't psyched as heck for Lex's return? Okay, that setup may sound like I'm going to tear into Michael Rosenbaum, but I'm not. Having him around for those couple of minutes really punctuated just how great Lex and Clark's dynamic really was. It was a shame they had to go and erase a decade's worth of character growth like that. Of course, I half-expected him to help dear ol' Tess along a bit quicker after her quip that Clark had saved her first. And without stabbing her.
Meanwhile, daddy Lionel (the evil one from the mirror universe) had taken on the spirit of Darkseid (in exchange for ripping out Lionel's heart to give to Lex) and has gone to confront the Light (Clark) in the Light's (Clark's) barn. What. A. Weak. Fight?
"I hit you!"
"EHH!"
*Five minutes of flashbacks that encompass the WHOLE series!*
"Now I can fly. And I can fly through you!"
"Oh no! Now I'm going to explode into old man dust and birds!"
"Birds?"
"Yes...birds."
"Whatever."
And then he goes to see Jor-El and gets the Superman costume so he can finally deal with the giant flaming ball of death that should have probably already ended all life on Earth. And what the hell is wrong with those people on Air Force One?
"We know firing nukes at this thing won't do a damn thing to it and will kill millions of people. But gosh dangit, let's fire them nukes anyway! Trust us, it's better this way."
That is some pretty poor reasoning.
Finally, Clark gets the suit. And then we never see him with it on. Sure, we get some pretty poor CG of Supes from a distance and then that shot of Clark ripping open his shirt to reveal the 'S' at the end (but his face wasn't even in the shot at that point), but never say, the classic Superman pose, all majestic and heroic.
If Clark could've just pushed Apokalips away, why didn't he do that in the first place. Why did he have to run around town visiting everyone and their mother before finally getting the suit and just nudging the planet away. Oh, it was because he didn't believe in himself? That he hadn't yet truly embraced his destiny? I'm sorry, but that s*** didn't fly in Spider-Man 2 and it certainly doesn't here.
After ten years of the same thing, I shouldn't have been surprised, but I still feel cheated. What? Did Welling just not fit into the Superman Returns costume? Couldn't pay for alterations? Tommy boy didn't want to work out enough to look good in the suit? What was it CW? WHAT? WAS? IT?
In a way, flaws and all, Finale was the perfect finale for the show I spent ten years following. It represents the heights and depths the series was capable of, and, even though I spent most of this post ripping the finale apart, I will miss the show.
Also, CW and Warner Bros., please consider making at least TV movies in the Smallville universe and get Tom Welling to get in shape.
Monday, May 2, 2011
The PSN Malfunction
It's now Monday, May 2nd. The PlayStation Network has been down since April 20th. Over the past twelve days and some odd hours (it was taken offline some time that Wednesday evening), some details have surfaced over what happened. It was determined that there was an external attack (hackers hacking) on Sony's online networking platforms (the PlayStation Network, their Qriocity music store, and recently, the Sony Online Entertainment...thing. Are they still calling it portal or hub?) There were some *ahem* liberties taken with the sparse information Sony has given the public and many conclusions were jumped to. This one I saw repeatedly: "Sony should burn because it in no way protected customer information at all and I'm going to sue them."
At the time, there was no evidence that the good folks at PlayStation hadn't protected customer's private information. From what Sony has said (and big companies never, ever mislead the public. Ever.), credit card data was/is encrypted and it does not appear that it was pulled in the "external attack." Then there came the reports that Sony's list of "77 million user's" credit card data was being sold off in chunks. Well, the problem with that statement (and the reason it's in quotes) is that only about 10 million users had active credit cards attached to their profiles. Also, on average, well over 25,000 people in the US alone are victims of identy theft daily. So the couple of people (and not saying it isn't related, but it could be a freaky coincidence) that have come forward with fraudulent charges being made around the time of the "external attack" very well could've had their credit card info nabbed in some other way.
And let's be real, if not for the credit card thing, what's on someone's profile that isn't, say, on Facebook or on one of a dozen data aggregate sites (once I found out that my cell number and home address was on these sites, I had it removed. It's a bit time consuming, but relatively easy.)?
Someone rudely accused me of defending big business, and that really isn't me. Rather than pointing fingers at Sony when there wasn't a whole lot of info to go on (there still isn't and we may never know just how beefy or not Sony's security was), I think that the gaming community would've been better served uniting in common desire to see justice served against the person(s) who hacked the system and caused such a lengthy blackout.
The only thing I really need the PSN for right now is to sync my trophies to my user profile so I can switch out hard drives (I purchased a much larger HDD without realizing that 1) the system was down and 2) that it required a connection at all), so the PSN being down isn't a big loss for me.
And I still blame this mess on that shmuck who thought it would be a good idea to release the PS3's root key online and didn't expect any retaliation in return. Yeah, you hacked the unhackable system, opened the floodgate for others to do with the system what they will, and you didn't expect anything bad to happen? Either to you (Sony has been accused of drawing the legal battle out in order to ramp up legal fees) or to your fellow gamers (who were the real victims in all this)? Good job there, guy. (And do you really think for one second this was just about Sony removing the ability to install another OS?)
And to those who say that Sony either should have had better security (still don't know how good it was) or that they deserve this, let me say this: If I were to break into your house, steal your wallet and computer, kick you in dangly bits, and run away, shouldn't I be the one getting the blame? This hypothetical you wouldn't say, "well, I guess the locks weren't good enough. I deserved to have all my stuff stolen and my dangly bits kicked in." No. That wouldn't happen.
To sum it up: I'm not pro-Sony (or big corporations), I'm pro-going after the person who perpetrated the attacks.
At the time, there was no evidence that the good folks at PlayStation hadn't protected customer's private information. From what Sony has said (and big companies never, ever mislead the public. Ever.), credit card data was/is encrypted and it does not appear that it was pulled in the "external attack." Then there came the reports that Sony's list of "77 million user's" credit card data was being sold off in chunks. Well, the problem with that statement (and the reason it's in quotes) is that only about 10 million users had active credit cards attached to their profiles. Also, on average, well over 25,000 people in the US alone are victims of identy theft daily. So the couple of people (and not saying it isn't related, but it could be a freaky coincidence) that have come forward with fraudulent charges being made around the time of the "external attack" very well could've had their credit card info nabbed in some other way.
And let's be real, if not for the credit card thing, what's on someone's profile that isn't, say, on Facebook or on one of a dozen data aggregate sites (once I found out that my cell number and home address was on these sites, I had it removed. It's a bit time consuming, but relatively easy.)?
Someone rudely accused me of defending big business, and that really isn't me. Rather than pointing fingers at Sony when there wasn't a whole lot of info to go on (there still isn't and we may never know just how beefy or not Sony's security was), I think that the gaming community would've been better served uniting in common desire to see justice served against the person(s) who hacked the system and caused such a lengthy blackout.
The only thing I really need the PSN for right now is to sync my trophies to my user profile so I can switch out hard drives (I purchased a much larger HDD without realizing that 1) the system was down and 2) that it required a connection at all), so the PSN being down isn't a big loss for me.
And I still blame this mess on that shmuck who thought it would be a good idea to release the PS3's root key online and didn't expect any retaliation in return. Yeah, you hacked the unhackable system, opened the floodgate for others to do with the system what they will, and you didn't expect anything bad to happen? Either to you (Sony has been accused of drawing the legal battle out in order to ramp up legal fees) or to your fellow gamers (who were the real victims in all this)? Good job there, guy. (And do you really think for one second this was just about Sony removing the ability to install another OS?)
And to those who say that Sony either should have had better security (still don't know how good it was) or that they deserve this, let me say this: If I were to break into your house, steal your wallet and computer, kick you in dangly bits, and run away, shouldn't I be the one getting the blame? This hypothetical you wouldn't say, "well, I guess the locks weren't good enough. I deserved to have all my stuff stolen and my dangly bits kicked in." No. That wouldn't happen.
To sum it up: I'm not pro-Sony (or big corporations), I'm pro-going after the person who perpetrated the attacks.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Ugh
It's been awhile. I know I said I was going to be posting more here, but that hasn't worked out. Between work and the hours I put in just last night to clean my desktop of malware/virii, I've been busy.
With all of the cover letters I've had to write for applications lately, I've come to two conclusions. One, I hate cover letters. Two, I can't write a good cover letter. Which is weird to me. I mean, my degree and certification are in English. You'd think I'd be able to compose a half-way decent letter to sell myself as such. But no. Maybe it's the same thing with my writing. I psych myself out If I could just have someone with a recording device following me around all day, I'd be golden.
Though the date will say it's from some time in early April, I'm not actually finishing it until April 19th. So, to further what I said above, I applied to the district I'm a Guest Teacher in. Hopefully, that gets me somewhere. But, I know there are hundreds of applicants and only two positions open, so I'm not holding my breath (which is a weird phrase anyway, since it's allegedly physically impossible to die by holding your breath).
I spent the last three weeks of work proctoring a computerized standardized test. Very few mishaps this time, which is a plus.
I bought Dead Rising 2 this past week. I was waiting for it to go down more in price, but then I watched the videos here and here. I've watched through a couple more of the Two Best Friends... videos and, other than Vampire Rain, the videos are pretty good. I'm not saying they're wrong about the fact that VR is a shitty game. Far from it. I just think it would've been good if they had attempted the game the way it was meant to be played (purely stealth without confronting the Vampires) to show how utterly ridiculous the game truly is.
But Dead Rising 2 is a pretty damn good game. It's a game where the sheer joy of destroying countless zombies is the main attraction. Unlike Valve's Left 4 Dead, which is a game all about survival and ammo conservation (kind of, the hand gun's ammo is infinite, but where's the fun in that?), Dead Rising 2 doesn't take itself seriously. The cutscenes do, but the gameplay does not. Where else are you going to jam a Servbot (think giant Lego head) mask on a zombie, then flay him with a machette on a stick? No where, that's where.
And that brings up another draw of the game. The game's teaser was Tape it or Die! That refers to the game's combo system. As Chuck (the main character) levels up, he gains access to combo cards, which tell the player what components are needed to make increasingly hilarious and deadly weapons (which also give bonuses to PP (the game's XP)).
My only real complain is sometimes the game's story takes away from zombie smashing. You can either kill thousands of zombies (and I have) or you can save your daughter (um...spoiler, I guess), but if you do too much zombie killin' you'll miss a deadline and fail the cases (missions) and then the truth is lost or something. Either way, it sounds important, so I just went with it. Though, I wish I could save more people (also a good way to boost PP).
In other news, I still haven't uploaded the new edition of Project Zero. I know, I said it was going to be within two weeks after Read an eBook Week, but things happen and I didn't have time to make some changes I wanted. I was tempted to just say I uploaded a new edition because I gotta figure 90% of the people who downloaded it didn't read it anyway.
With all of the cover letters I've had to write for applications lately, I've come to two conclusions. One, I hate cover letters. Two, I can't write a good cover letter. Which is weird to me. I mean, my degree and certification are in English. You'd think I'd be able to compose a half-way decent letter to sell myself as such. But no. Maybe it's the same thing with my writing. I psych myself out If I could just have someone with a recording device following me around all day, I'd be golden.
Though the date will say it's from some time in early April, I'm not actually finishing it until April 19th. So, to further what I said above, I applied to the district I'm a Guest Teacher in. Hopefully, that gets me somewhere. But, I know there are hundreds of applicants and only two positions open, so I'm not holding my breath (which is a weird phrase anyway, since it's allegedly physically impossible to die by holding your breath).
I spent the last three weeks of work proctoring a computerized standardized test. Very few mishaps this time, which is a plus.
I bought Dead Rising 2 this past week. I was waiting for it to go down more in price, but then I watched the videos here and here. I've watched through a couple more of the Two Best Friends... videos and, other than Vampire Rain, the videos are pretty good. I'm not saying they're wrong about the fact that VR is a shitty game. Far from it. I just think it would've been good if they had attempted the game the way it was meant to be played (purely stealth without confronting the Vampires) to show how utterly ridiculous the game truly is.
But Dead Rising 2 is a pretty damn good game. It's a game where the sheer joy of destroying countless zombies is the main attraction. Unlike Valve's Left 4 Dead, which is a game all about survival and ammo conservation (kind of, the hand gun's ammo is infinite, but where's the fun in that?), Dead Rising 2 doesn't take itself seriously. The cutscenes do, but the gameplay does not. Where else are you going to jam a Servbot (think giant Lego head) mask on a zombie, then flay him with a machette on a stick? No where, that's where.
And that brings up another draw of the game. The game's teaser was Tape it or Die! That refers to the game's combo system. As Chuck (the main character) levels up, he gains access to combo cards, which tell the player what components are needed to make increasingly hilarious and deadly weapons (which also give bonuses to PP (the game's XP)).
My only real complain is sometimes the game's story takes away from zombie smashing. You can either kill thousands of zombies (and I have) or you can save your daughter (um...spoiler, I guess), but if you do too much zombie killin' you'll miss a deadline and fail the cases (missions) and then the truth is lost or something. Either way, it sounds important, so I just went with it. Though, I wish I could save more people (also a good way to boost PP).
In other news, I still haven't uploaded the new edition of Project Zero. I know, I said it was going to be within two weeks after Read an eBook Week, but things happen and I didn't have time to make some changes I wanted. I was tempted to just say I uploaded a new edition because I gotta figure 90% of the people who downloaded it didn't read it anyway.
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